Are you ready for an over-indulgent Christmas?

Fitness columnist Dan Donohue writes about the impact socialising over Christmas has on you.

We are now moving at a rate of knots towards the most wonderful time of the year.

With the arrival of the festive season comes busier-than-ever schedules, social gatherings, indulgent foods and in many cases, lots of alcohol.

Navigating the Christmas landscape is sometimes a hostile, precarious environment when it comes to the possible/probable expansion of our waistlines, so over the next three weeks we’re going to give you some strategies that you can deploy to get you to the end of the festivities with a little damage limitation, allowing you to kick on into the beginning of a brand, new 12 months of fun and fitness.

At Fitness Formation, we love Christmas.

We are big believers in balance, which is why we like to steer most of our clients down the road of flexible dieting.

Why? Simple, it’s sustainable and when it comes to times like the holiday season, it allows people to have a little wiggle room to have a little bit of what they love and enjoy.

Sustainability is the key unlocking the door when it comes to creating and sticking to the initial habits we form in the early stages of a shake-up with our eating patterns.

Many people imagine progress as linear when, in fact, it looks more like a two-year-old trying to draw a straight line.

It’s a squiggly line of peaks, troughs and plateaus.

Now, when it comes to the festivities and the amazing foods that come with it at this time of the year, there are two side to the argument of whether we should indulge a lot, or tow the line a little.

A little short break of indulgence should be meaningful and enjoyable.

We should be present in the moment, but we should be hugely aware of the consequences that may come with it.

Let’s be honest, Christmas isn’t just one day. Christmas is two to three party nights with work, maybe your partner’s work and your gym buddies.

It’s three days of throwing caution to the wind on the biggest days followed by another two days of booting out all self-control as we head into the new year.

It’s Christmas markets, shopping trips with indulgent pit-stops.

It’s the mountains of treats brought into work by colleagues who won’t take no for an answer when they shove another handful of Roses into your face.

It’s mind-blowing how it can all spiral out of control in the blink of an eye.

It’s estimated that most people gain two to five pounds over the holiday period, but anticipating the challenges that lie ahead and those that may throw you off will be the best weapon you can deploy this December.

In next week’s column, we’ll look at some of the ways that you can be best prepared to handle the upcoming season with aplomb and march into 2019 well armed for crushing the coming months ahead and hitting your goals.

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